Treatment of cancer varies based on the type of cancer and its stage. The stage of a cancer refers to how much it has grown and whether the tumor has spread from its original location. If the cancer is confined to one location and has not spread, the most common goals for treatment are surgery and cure. This is often the case with skin cancers, as well as cancers of the lung, breast, and colon.
If the tumor has spread to local lymph nodes only, sometimes these can also be removed. If surgery cannot remove all of the cancer, the options for treatment include radiation, chemotherapy, or both. Some cancers require a combination of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Although current radiotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents and biological toxins are potent cytotoxins, they do not discriminate between normal and malignant cells, producing adverse effects and dose-limiting toxicities. There remains specific cancer markers and identifying cancers, tumors and other disorders associated abnormal cell growth that can be treated with drugs that are effective for treating such disorders without producing adverse effects and dose-limiting toxicities to normal cells.
Surprisingly, the methods and compositions of the invention fulfill the needs and satisfy other objects and advantages that will become apparent from the description which follows.